Cleaner Than the Day You Were Born

Matthew 3:13-17

A couple of weeks ago, my mom and I were talking about my dad, sharing memories about all sorts of things that he used to say and do, things that made him who he was.  And for whatever reason, at some point in our sharing I remembered something that dad used to say that never made even the slightest bit of sense.  And here it is, when my dad used to get really excited about something, he would shout out, “Holy Jumping Cow!!!!” 

Not Holy Cow, and not even Jumpin Jehosophat, whatever that means, but Holy Jumping Cow.  And those 3 words, and my dad’s ridiculous combination of them will forever be one of the things that I remember about him.  But as I sat down to write the sermon this week, it also occurred to me that Dad might not have been as weird as we all used to think that he was for his odd choice of exclamations.  Because when you really stop and think about it, there are a great many common and familiar old sayings that have become so much a part of our culture and language that don’t really make much more sense than a good old fashioned “Holy Jumping Cow.”

For instance, how often have you heard it said that when someone is having a great nights sleep, that they are “sleeping like a baby.”   But when you think about it, who really wants to sleep like a baby?  As best I can remember from my kids’ infancy, sleeping like a baby means that you wake up screaming every couple of hours after having gone to the bathroom in your pants.  And I don’t know that any of us are too keen on sleeping like that. 

Which reminds me of another of those old sayings that just doesn’t make any sense.  How many times have you heard someone who is spic and span, (whatever that means) well anyway, how many times have you heard someone who has just taken a bath or a shower, all fragrant with the air of soap and shampoo being told that they were “Clean as the day they were born?” 

Once again, unless my memory fails me, the day my children were born was about the messiest day of their lives.  I was there, I saw them when they showed up.  And I can tell you with great certainty that if my kids are any indication, the truth is that the average person is probably never messier than they were on the day that they were born.  But then they clean you up and hand you over to your mother and your father and your grandmother and your grandfather and that’s probably the sort of clean that they are talking about.

Or are they?  Because, when you think about it, there are different kinds of messy, and different kinds of clean.  You can have a dirty body, but you can also have a dirty mind.  And by the same token, you can clean under your fingernails, and you can clean up your act.  And when I start to think about things this way, it seems to me that while we may come into the world messy on the outside, we are really also sparking clean on the inside.  No doubt, there is nothing more pure and innocent than the love and trust of a newborn child.

But the problem is, the older we get, our hygiene might improve…. eventually, but it also seems that our insides get messier by the year.  Some time around the day we begin to speak, we start to become more self centered and self interested.  We want everything our way, and we want it now (and we don’t want to have to do anything in order to earn it.)  We eat more than we need.  We get angry, lose our tempers and we scream and we yell, and we demand our own way.  We hold grudges, and withhold forgiveness.  We exclude and deride those who are different from us, and we blame others for all our problems.  

And before you know it, we are showering and shaving and putting on deodorant, aftershave and cologne, we are looking (and smelling) pretty darned good on the outside, but our insides are getting pretty ugly.  The unfortunate truth is that the unwashed inside of the human soul is colored by the stain of the 7 deadly sins.  Lust , gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride, you name it, we got and it’s messing us all up inside.

A thousands baths and 10,000 bars of soap can’t wash away the tremendous filth that can accumulate in the bottom of the unwashed human heart and soul.  And not even an intraveinious injection of those infamous scrubbing bubbles can remove the stain of  sin that marks the inside of the human being.

But thank heavens that there is something more powerful than scrubbing bubbles, and something more long lasting than even 24 hour Right Guard protection.  It’s called Grace, and God gives it away freely to anyone who asks for it.  Grace, God’s unmerited forgiveness for any wrong that we have done cleans out our soul like a scrub brush on a muddy floor.  And it will keep us clean for as long as we seek it, and are willing to share it with others.  It will keep on scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing until all that envy, avarice and greed that used to dirty up our insides are nothing but a distant memory in a far removed past.

And that’s why this mornings’ scripture story, and the whole idea of Baptism in the Baptist tradition, is so important.  For it is these cleansing waters of the baptismal pool that wash over our body, that symbolize for us the cleansing of our souls that is accomplished by God’s grace and forgiveness the moment that we ask for them.

But to speak of grace and forgiveness of sins with reference to baptism is to raise a pressing question when it comes to this morning’s story about Jesus’ baptism.  Which one of us hasn’t asked the question, “If baptism is all about the forgiveness of sins, they why did Jesus need to be baptized?”  Holy jumping cow, even John the Baptist said, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” when Jesus came to him on the banks of the river Jordan.   

But Jesus responded by saying, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”  “And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him: and lo, a voice from heaven saying “this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

You see, the story of Jesus’ baptism is an indication that there aren’t just one, but two baptisms offered us by God.  The first, is as we said, the washing of the water that cleans away the accumulation of ugliness that has gathered inside of us.  It is an emptying out of all that which pollutes our soul. 

However, there is a second baptism as well, a baptism that fills the vacancy in our soul created by the washing waters of Grace.  And that second baptism is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  You see, while the washing of the water cleans us out of that which ails us, the baptism of the Holy Spirit fills us back up with that which will make us well.  Grace, and the waters of baptism take away the 7 Deadly Sins and the baptism of the Holy Spirit replaces them with the 7 gifts of the spirit.  Out go lust , gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride, and in come a flood of wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and wonder and awe in God.

Jesus baptism marked him as God’s own Son and filled him with all the goodness and love that was going to be required of him to fulfill his calling to be the one to bring the power of God’s grace to life and serve as the savior of the world.  And the same happens to us when we choose to live with God in a state of grace.  The washing of the waters of baptism clean our soul of all the ugliness that prevent us from living in the presence of God.  And the baptism of the Holy Spirit fills us up with God’s love, lights our path with God’s wisdom, and strengthens us with God’s faith.  

With a little soap and water we can clean up pretty good.  But thank God for this baptismal one two punch that takes care of our insides as well, and makes us even cleaner than the day that we were born. 
Amen.